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Growers Notes... New Species or Not??

Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora

The famous white flowering member of the fricii family, Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora is found south of Viesca in the south-western state of Coahuila Mexico, in the mountains surrounding the Viesca Basin inhabiting the hill slopes and growing mostly solitary. It is actually quite unique, providing for a range of flower colours from a tiny pure white flower through to its typical Williamsii counterpart of light pink. When lucky enough to germinate a specimen that produces the expected white flower, one will find it to be much smaller and far more delicate than any of the other Lophophora family flowers. As I have typically done with other groups of plants in my collection, I have picked out only those producing the whitest of flowers to continue the cross pollination process, in hopes of producing a pure strain of white flowering plants. As expected though, most offspring tend to have slight light pink striping, which is typical of all Lophophora plants with the exception of the pure Diffusa strain.

At the bottom of the page is a wonderful little surprise I found growing in my germination tray... and a very rare find in anyone's collection, a Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora variegate. Rare is the only real manner of describing such a plant as I have only found about a dozen various seedlings growing with such a mutation after planting roughly ten thousand seeds... it is no wonder people sellers charge and arm and a leg for such specimens as they are truly very rare indeed. With time and luck, I am hoping to cross pollinate the two plants with the hope of strengthening the variegated gene, but only time will tell if this actually works. There will be more photos of the plants shown time. As mentioned though, much luck is needed with such rarities since I have also noticed that when plants are raised with such oddities they often grow slower and tend to have more differences than their namesake such as flower colour and shape.

Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora, is very easy to grow from seed and has high germination rates. As others within the Diffusa family, these plants are also prone to rot from excessive watering, so less is always better than more. Similar to others in the fricii group of plants, forma albiflora is quite prolific, offering new flowers every couple of weeks given the right conditions, followed with bright red seed pods containing twenty plus seeds regularly, if pollinated.

Above: Fifteen month old Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora

Above: Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora also three years old

Above: Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora variegated seedling

Above: Lophophora Diffusa var. fricii forma albiflora variegated seedling number two